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Is Borderless Window mode + VSync ON equivalent to G-Sync?

Posted: 21 Dec 2017, 07:58
by loinad
Hello everyone!

This in my first post in Blurbusters, but I have appreciated the site for a long time ever since it made me discover lightboost in my current BenQ XL2420T. :)

I created this other discussion

https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comment ... h_monitor/

but, in spite of a lot of nice replies -- and I gave thought to all of them --, what I really wanted was a collection of opinions based on pure experience, pure perception.

If you own a G-Sync monitor or have experienced one, please post your opinion about this: I believe that the combination of G-Sync OFF + Borderless Window in game settings + VSync ON results in the same perception of what G-Sync offers with regard to smoothness because of Windows' DWM.

I am not seeking any purely theoretical explanation or discussion of G-Sync because I have already read it all over the place (and in Blurbusters). Instead, I am seeking feedback from people who have had direct perception. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Re: Is Borderless Window mode + VSync ON equivalent to G-Syn

Posted: 21 Dec 2017, 13:44
by jorimt
Short answer: no.

Long answer: Borderless windowed + V-SYNC on should be roughly equivalent to exclusive fullscreen + Fast Sync on, but with up to an extra frame of lag due to DWM, unless you're running Window 10's new DX12-style borderless windowed mode (support varies per app, difficult to confirm) that acts like exclusive fullscreen, at which point, borderless windowed + V-SYNC on should be roughly equivalent to exclusive fullscreen + Fast Sync on in both functionality and input lag levels.

Read my G-SYNC vs. Fast Sync section here, if you haven't already:
https://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/gsync ... ettings/8/

Re: Is Borderless Window mode + VSync ON equivalent to G-Syn

Posted: 21 Dec 2017, 14:26
by RealNC
Since you asked about perception, if your FPS is high enough, then yes, fastsync or borderless at ~500FPS or higher is a very similar experience to g-sync. Still not as good, but very close.

If you would be able to get nearer to 1000FPS, then I'd say it would be pretty much the same as g-sync.